Day 3: Dongguan
We ate breakfast and loaded up on the bus to head to Dongguan. It was a pretty drive and only took about an hour or so.
This city is much different, much larger, and much more interesting! It has tons of shopping, a museum and ancient battlefield of the Opium War, and many factories. Our hotel is super nice, too! Even nicer than the last one. Here is the view from our window on the 11th floor:
Our food comes from a local restaurant, so we all jump on our bus and take a five minute trip over there for lunch and dinner It is served family style, which means there are a ton of dishes on a lazy susan in the middle of a big table (about 10 people).
As it turns you just grab a few pieces off the dish passing by with your chop sticks. There are no serving utensils! It has been pretty delicious so far … spicy tofu, fried eggplant, endive peanut salad, fried rice for us, and many typical Chinese food dishes you would see in restaurants back home for meat-eaters. It look so good, it’s tempting me to eat meat again :) I might just break down by the end of the trip and call it a “splurge”. I mean, when am I going to get to sample authentic Chinese food in China again, right? Right???
We encountered our first weird food last night:
Don’t worry, we didn’t have to eat it! They don’t get offended you don’t like something because we have no control over the ordering. They just bring a certain amount of dishes each meal.
There was a show that night, so Phil was busy all day. I got out for a few hours, but wasn’t feeling very good. I thought I was coming down with a cold, but it turns out its just a reaction to the incredible amount of smog in the air. So I just pretty much slept all day and all night. Not very exciting, huh?
Tomorrow is another day in Dongguan!